A notice of motion, calling on the Department of Education to ensure that adequate provision is in place for children with special educational needs, received unanimous support from ABC councillors.
Sinn Féin Councillor Liam Mackle presented the motion as follows at the meeting: “Every year, since about 2018, the September headlines on the local news bulletins and the radio calling shows are dominated by the number of children with special educational needs who have not secured school placements.
“There’s every expectation that this year will be the same. Families with the most vulnerable children who lead incredibly stressful lives meeting the complex needs of their children, have the added stress during the summer months of not knowing where their child will be placed. This is grossly unfair and quite frankly cruel.
“The Education Authority have tried to do what they can with limited resources available.
“A whole new concept and provision for pupils with special education needs has emerged, Specialist Provision in Mainstream Schools (SPiM).
“Very often these new provisions are hastily arranged, and often they make use of whatever spaces is available in mainstream schools.
“Such provisions fall well short of what is often required to meet the complex needs of people with special education needs.
“There’s often no therapeutic input available within the school, as there is within our special schools.
“These pupils often require regular speech and language therapy or occupational therapy input on a daily basis as part of their placements, but this is not available within a mainstream school.
“There’s no doubt that the failure to plan properly for the number of pupils presenting with severe learning difficulties, moderate learning difficulties and complex medical conditions, is a major reason for this year-on-year problem.
“It is however very difficult to plan and to invest in the future, when the budgets available are reduced year-on-year.
“The Conservative Government that was elected in 2010 heralded in an unprecedented 14 years of heartless austerity.
“The legacy of those 14 years of Tory rule is clear for everyone to see. All our public services in the North are broken. GP provision, dental provision, social care, including much needed respite provision for disabled children and adults – an issue we have recently debated in this chamber – healthcare with waiting lists beyond what anyone thought was possible, and of course our education system, particularly provision for our disabled pupils, is also broken.
“We need the Executive and the Department for Education to prioritise the provision for these children.
“We need at least another two fully-equipped special schools to ensure that our children are appropriately placed and receive suitable educational opportunities, in an environment that meets their needs holistically.
“Members, this is not a controversial issue, it is an issue I’m sure each and every one of you are familiar with, and that all of you have at some stage taken calls from parents at their wits’ end, not knowing what is happening with their child’s education.
“If you, as I hope you will, give this motion our unanimous backing, we can express our concern as a council by writing to the Executive Office and to the Department of Education.”
Read more: Co Armagh mum fears for son’s future as desperation mounts over lack of SEN placements
Cllr Mackle’s notice of motion was worded as follows: “This council is concerned at the number of pupils with special educational needs across the ABC area, and across the whole region, who have not been placed or have not been appropriately placed in educational facilities.
“We note that this has now become an annual occurrence. We call on the Department of Education and the Education Authority to take whatever steps are needed to address this issue in the longer term, so that pupils with special educational needs and their parents are not left in uncertainty every summer.”
Councillor Kevin Savage (Sinn Féin, Banbridge DEA) seconded the notice of motion, stating: “I know that he is very passionate about this subject of access to education for those children with special needs, and indeed has assisted many families in [their] request to secure a suitable placement for their child.
“As of Friday of last week, there were some 37 special educational needs children without a placement.
“This will have had a negative impact on each of these children, their family and support network.
“These children could potentially be at home this week and next week, while their peers are attending school.
“This might seem a low number, but as Cllr Mackle has pointed out, a lot of the placements are special provision in mainstream, which can fall well short of what is required.
“We need to put an end to the annual pain and misery caused to the families and children awaiting a placement.
“As councillors we have all had the assist and help families in this position, and it is heartbreaking what they have to go through.
“As stated by Cllr Mackle, this is not a controversial subject, we should be all singing off the same hymn page regarding the educational needs of the most vulnerable children in our society, and I hope you can support this motion.”
Alliance Councillor Robbie Alexander pointed out that there were probably a lot more than 37 children with special educational needs in need of placement: “There’s children with needs that aren’t being met, that aren’t being reported on as well, so the number is actually a lot higher than 37.
“It’s important to recognise that all children, no matter what their needs are, need to go to school in order to realise their full potential, and these children are being left behind, while children who don’t have additional needs are actually attending school, and are for some reason almost given more of a chance to reach that potential, which is just unfair.
“We have to treat every child the same. They should be entitled to the same things, regardless of their needs in education, and we’re just failing them at the moment.
“We need to do whatever we can to change the system for the better. We can’t just keep throwing money at a broken system, we need wholesale change in this system.
“A lot of these children who are still waiting for either statements or for school placements have been through the Trust, they’ve got diagnosis from allied health professionals, from doctors, and then all of a sudden to have to go to the back of a queue to get a statement from the EA, it’s just another wait that these parents are essentially having to put up with.
“It’s just wrong and we need to do whatever we can as quickly as possible to essentially right this wrong. I would like to fully support this motion.”
Read more: Parents’ stress as they await news on special educational needs placements for September
UUP Councillor Julie Flaherty commented: “As I said just last month, I have talked about these issues in this chamber for about eight years now.
“Some of the comments that have been made have made me think very much of the week that we’re in, where we see all over social media photographs of beautiful children in their school uniforms at the front door.
“Some of us don’t have that for different reasons, and it makes me think I should have a 13-year-old going to school, and goodness only knows where he would be at this juncture, given what’s going on.
“You mentioned the number 37, and that again sticks with me. You might say it’s a low number – Cllr Alexander has indicated quite rightly that it’s probably not even touching the sides of the children that really need it.
“But I’ve also said this many times, these children aren’t numbers, they’re not statistics, Jake [her late son] certainly wasn’t a number and neither are any of these children.
“But I will repeat what I said last month, we know there’s simply not enough places and many – such as I and many other parents – are just sick and tired of children being educated in school corridors, converted cloakrooms, or by teachers in full classrooms who aren’t equipped for some of these children.
“That is entirely unfair on both parties. The Department must find the money. We’re talking about money in every Department here, but this is really urgent for these children.
“Last month, a number of questions were asked in this chamber about this very issue.
“I understand that a letter has been written in response to a previous AOB. I would very much doubt that a response has been received yet, and I’d be keen to see how this feeds into this notice of motion.
“I’m sure we can expect another couple of weeks’ wait until business resumes, if you could call it that in the Department.
“I’m happy to support both Cllr Mackle and Cllr Savage.”
DUP Councillor Alan Mulholland stressed that any additional provision had to reflect financial resources available: “I’d like to thank Cllrs Mackle and Savage for bringing this forward. I fully support what you’re saying here.
“As a teacher myself for roughly about 20 years now, I’ve taught in special schools and right up to university-level courses, and I take a great deal of interest within education myself.
“I did take it upon myself to contact the Department of Education and seek a response on this.
“As of this afternoon they came back to me. Basically what they have done is they set up a new taskforce to try and address all placements for this coming September.
“From over a thousand places that were needed there’s now just over 20 that remain unplaced, and that’s Northern Ireland wide.
“All children in ABC have now either received a place or are in the process of being placed, and the capital spend on special education has been outlined to the Assembly, including a 10-year plan to invest in eight new schools.
“And also they’re currently trying to identify works that need to be completed to all existing 39 special schools.
“I’d also like to say the Department of Education and the Education Authority can only be successful in providing resources for all children if they are given the budget to suit their needs, which could be supported by the Finance Department and Finance Minister.”
SDLP Councillor Thomas O’Hanlon pointed out that the issue of educational provision for children with special needs, was not simply about the number of special schools available: “This is more than the 39 special schools, this is about every primary school and every secondary school across our communities.
“If you’re a parent of one of the 20 who hasn’t got placed, it’s not good enough.
“And it’s not just about placements, it’s about statements of special educational need, it’s about principals being shoehorned and cajoled during the summer months [and being asked] ‘Will you take wee Johnny or wee Kate?’.
“It is about the lack of classroom assistants, it’s about the lack of dignity in the lack of changing facilities for some of the children with the most complex needs.
“I think it’s an indictment on society that those who need most are been treated the worst.
“Whilst I very much support the notice of motion and hope that something will change, I am sceptical that in the race for money within the Department, anything will ever change in the way to treat those who need us most.”
Cllr Mackle thanked ABC councillors for their support, and had a thought for those parents who were only allocated school placements for their children at the last minute: “The figure may be 20, it was 37 the other day.
“So over those summer months, all those other parents who’ve now had places still had all that anxiety up until they got some good news.
“And those parents in the borough who are in the process of being placed, they’ve been in the process of being placed since May or June. It’s an ongoing process.
“So I’d just like to thank members for their support, and our letter will hopefully help build the momentum to get the resources that are required.
“The Equality Commission also today issued a report on advancing equality for children with special education needs, which largely deals with this issue of placements and the appropriateness of placements as well, so the motion is timely.
“Thank you members for your support.”
